1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a person location detecting apparatus for detecting a location of a person and an air conditioner using the person location detecting apparatus for detecting a location of a person to perform various kinds of controls to make a person comfortable, such as air conditioning flow control for preventing air flow to directly hit a person.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reference 1 discloses a human body detecting sensor of an air conditioner as a conventional person location detecting apparatus of this kind, which is illustrated in FIG. 12.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary essential configuration of a conventional air conditioner disclosed in Reference 1.
In FIG. 12, a control apparatus 100 of the conventional air conditioner includes: a location detecting section 101 for detecting an existing direction and a distance of a human body from the air conditioner; a main control section 102 for performing a main control of the air conditioner; a temperature setting changing section 103 for changing a temperature setting; a wind direction changing section 104 for changing a ventilation direction; a wind direction control wing 105 for changing the ventilation direction from side to side and up and down; a wind direction control wing driving section 106 for driving the wind direction control wing 105; a wind velocity changing section 107 for changing a ventilation velocity; a ventilator 108 for ventilating; and a ventilator driving section 109 for driving the ventilator 108.
The location detecting section 101 is configured with two infrared ray sensors for detecting infrared rays radiated from a human body; a Fresnel lens for focusing infrared rays on the infrared ray sensors; and an amplifier substrate that implements an amplifier for amplifying an output of the infrared ray sensors.
Thus, based on an output from the location detecting section 101 for detecting an existing direction and a distance of a human body from the air conditioner, the main control section 102 changes a temperature setting using the temperature setting changing section 103; changes a ventilation direction using the wind direction changing section 104; and changes a ventilation velocity using the wind velocity changing section 107. As a result, a spot operation is automatically performed in accordance with a movement of a person, so that a comfortable and convenient air conditioning can be achieved.
On the other hand, Reference 2 discloses, as a conventional person location detecting apparatus, an air conditioning apparatus for detecting a human body from image information from an image sensor to use the detection result for air conditioning.
In Reference 2, a location of a person in a room, a distance, the number of the people, and the like are detected using image information, and further, an up-and-down flap for controlling a wind direction in an up-and-down direction and a left-and-right flap for controlling a wind direction in a left-and-right direction of the indoor portion are configured to distribute an air flow with a flap mechanism to control the air flow freely regardless of the location of a person. As a result, a constantly comfortable and economical air conditioning operation can be performed not only in an air conditioning space in an ordinary house but also in a large living room and a room combining living and dining rooms, found often in a modern house, and a room having a high ceiling. Because of this, an air flow can be freely controlled with an air conditioning apparatus that recognizes a location of a person, and comfortable air conditioning can be performed for each individual in accordance with the location of a person and the number of the people.
The detecting of a person by the image sensor is performed to detect a movement in a space of each of the areas that are divided from an image, and the amount of the movement is calculated. The dividing does not necessarily have to be an exact dividing, but can be particular points that are center points of the plurality of divided areas. The amount of the movement is taken in for several times to use the information for the wind direction control. In order not to detect a rapid change, such as turning on and off of a light, and an amount of a complicated movement of stopping and moving by a plurality of people, the detection of the amount of the movement by successively recording and calculating images is performed about five times, and an average point excluding the maximum and minimum values, is taken. As a result, an air conditioning apparatus, including a flap, will not respond and move when a person stays in one location of a room and another person passes in front. That is, when an average of the amount of the movement in a certain location is below a predetermined, constant threshold value, the accumulated amount of the movement is decreased. On the contrary, when the average is above the threshold value, the amount is increased. As a result, the weight increases at that location, which indicates that there is a high possibility of someone's existence there. It is determined that someone is active at a certain location when he is moving for a long time, whereas no response is provided for someone passing through the location or staying there only for a short while so that an unnecessary movement can be prevented for the air conditioning apparatus. Thus, for a person who is in the room, no noisy movement of the flap will be made and a preferable air conditioning is continued, so that no mental stress will be created and no unnecessary wind flow or wind change is felt by the person, enabling the person to continue a relaxed state giving himself to a surrounding environment.
Reference 1: JP Patent No. 2921256 (Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 5-187682)
Reference 2: Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-220405